On September 4th, 2020, 1-2 PM UTC, we met Gordon Campbell, Science, Head of Enterprise Section, EO Data Applications Division, EO Science, Applications and Climate Department, European Space Agency (ESA). The moderator was Piero Messina (ESA). Gordon presented the Atlantic Regional Initiative.

Speaker

Gordon Campbell

Gordon Campbell has been working for ESA since 1999 on defining and implementing actions to expand the uptake and use of Satellite Earth Observation data. This involved working on a range of public sector domains including environment, natural resources, law enforcement/ security and transport. He is also working to expand the use of satellite derived information in the International Development context in partnership with entities such as World Bank, Global Environment Facility and Inter-American Development Bank. Examples include management of natural resources (eg fisheries surveillance, management of mining activities) and putting in place more efficient sustainable development approaches (eg planning and monitoring impacts of development projects on critical habitats and ecosystems).

At the same time, Gordon Campbell is working to effectively exploit new ICT developments (such as state of the art cloud based high performance computing capabilities with very large EO datasets) to effect a step change in the impact of using satellite derived information in Earth science and public policy support. Finally, Gordon has been working with countries as the join ESA to elaborate appropriate strategies for developing their national satellite Earth Observation capabilities, defining how these strategies fit with other national policies (eg environment, security, high technology development) and how to work within ESA Earth Observation programmes to complement other regional and international cooperation activities.

Moderator

Piero Messina

Piero Messina is a senior policy & strategy officer in the ESA Director General Strategy Department. He is in charge of relations with Member States and has been working on the space resources issues and on the Moon Village vision. He provides strategic and operational support to the ESA “Blue Worlds Task Force” that is addressing the nexus between space activities and the needs of stakeholder in maritime areas and in particular in the Atlantic. Piero has been working at the European Space Agency for over 25 years in several positions and in different ESA Centers (ESOC, Germany, ESTEC, Netherlands and HQ in Paris). Before holding the present position he was, for several years, chief of staff / advisor to successive ESA Directors of human spaceflight and space exploration. Previously he was part of the managing team of the Aurora European Exploration Programme (within which the ExoMars mission was conceived) and the Secretary of its Board of participating Member States.

Previously Piero was responsible for relations with European Academia in the ESA Education office and held a position in the Director of Industrial Matters and Technology’s office. Piero started his career in ESA at ESOC in Germany as a Financial officer. Piero is a graduate of the Master in Space Studies from the International Space Universities and he holds an advanced degree in International Economic Relations from the University of Florence and an Master in History and Sociology of Science and Technology from the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales (EHESS) in Paris where is also pursuing a PhD focussing on the concept of space diplomacy. He is an auditeur of the French Institut des Hautes Études de Defense Nationale (IHEDN) having completed its 4th session on maritime strategy.

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.